5 Tips For Choosing An EMR System For Your Practice

With all of the technical and legal requirements involved in running a practice in today’s heavily regulated healthcare industry, it can sometimes feel like a challenge to simply practice medicine and interact with patients. And while you can’t do anything about the regulations that exist, you can reduce some of the friction associated with stringent requirements by adopting the right technology. Specifically, you need to align your practice with the electronic medical records (EMR) software that’s right for you.

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5 Tips For Choosing An EMR System

As you know, an EMR contains standard medical and clinical data gathered in your office on individual patients. It serves as a comprehensive overview of each patient and can be tracked and monitored, over time, to ensure patients get the best care possible. As you also know, HIPPA laws and other industry regulations make protecting these records a huge responsibility.

A powerful and robust EMR system will allow you to create, store, manage, and secure all of your patients’ EMRs with less risk and greater efficiency, but it all starts with choosing the right system.

Here are some tips to help you along:

1. Consider All Costs

It’s important to think about EMR software selection with your budget in mind. While most of the popular systems fall into a similar price range, you will find some variance. You have to be especially aware of the various costs associated with implementing the software, including training, implementation assistance, support, annual maintenance, updates, etc. In other words, make sure you’re calculating the total cost of ownership.

2. Ensure Proper Integration

Assuming you already have some other systems in place within your practice, you need to be sure that the EMR software you select properly integrates with your existing technology stack. This is especially significant when it comes to medical billing software.

“Your chosen EMR Software must either be already integrated with a solid practice management software or give you the option of interfacing with a compatible billing software of your choice,” Revenue XL advises. “Small practices require this flexibility so they can make choices with financial goals in mind.”

3. Find a Stable Vendor

Just because an EMR software product gets good reviews doesn’t mean it’s the best fit for you. You also need to think about the vendor behind the system. Do they have a good reputation in the industry?

4. Look For Good UX

Your EMR system is something that everyone in your practice will be interacting with daily. While it needs to be functional, it also needs to be intuitive. When testing out different EMR systems, think about user experience and give weight to the ones that are easiest to learn.

5. Ask For Recommendations

There’s a lot of good information online regarding the EMR systems that are best, but ask around within your professional network and get opinions from people you trust and respect. Which systems are they using? What are their biggest gripes? Which vendor would they go with if they started over from scratch? The answers to these questions will reveal a lot of valuable insights that you can use to make an educated selection.

Don’t Rush The Selection Process

Your desire to implement the right EMR system is understandable and wise, but don’t let your eagerness force you into prematurely selecting a product that isn’t right for your practice. It could take days or weeks for you to weed through your options and make a final choice, but your due diligence will be rewarded with software that’s perfect for your business.